The present invention relates to disposable articles and, more particularly, to disposable treatment articles having a responsive system that acts continuously or discontinuously.
Today, disposable articles are widely used for treatment of living and non-living surfaces for a wide variety of purposes. For example and without limitation, disposable products are used in the areas of personal care items, pharmaceuticals and health care, baby care, textile care, and home, commercial and industrial cleaning. These disposable products may be used for purposes such as, but not limited to cleaning, applying coatings or other materials to treat surface (such as stains, paints, waxes, conditioning agents, etc.), and containing or removing materials such as wastes, contaminants or other excess or undesired materials (such as diapers for body wastes, mops, brooms, gloves, etc. In many cases these articles have replaced reusable articles as the preferred means for reasons such as cost, convenience, and sanitation.
While many advancements have been made in the field of disposable articles to improve their effectiveness, such as improved strength, addition of active ingredients to improve cleaning, use of absorbent gellants to improve absorptivity, etc., a number of problems still exist. Among the problems experienced with these disposable treatment articles are leakage of materials intended to be removed or isolated, which can lead to incomplete cleaning and contamination of the surface that was treated by the material that was intended to be removed or isolated by the article, etc.
Another problem is that disposable treatment articles to date do not discriminated between when a particular type of treatment is needed and when it is not. For example, a disposable wipe may be used for general cleaning as well as to biological contaminants (such as wiping away feces from surface of a baby""s skin). Wipes designed to remove feces from a baby""s buttocks contain disinfectants or other active ingredients that may not be needed, or undesired, for other uses, such as wiping food from the baby""s face, or wiping stains from a textile surface or floor. Further, in the event that the disposable article is to be used multiple times before disposal, an active ingredient needed for treating a particular condition , such as disinfection of the skin in association with removal of feces, may no longer be present or effective for its intended purpose.
The present invention is directed to a disposable treatment article having a responsive system that acts in response to an input such as a material, condition, or occurrence to provide a responsive function which treats a material or object that can be either directly or indirectly associated with the input.
The present invention provides, for example, a self-contained, disposable treatment article, comprising a responsive system including;
(i) a sensor operatively connected to said article, said sensor being adapted to detect an input, and
(ii) an actuator operatively connected to said sensor, said actuator being adapted to perform a responsive function upon said input, said actuator comprising a distinct component from said sensor, and
(iii) optionally, a feedback control loop in which said controller is adapted to allow said actuator to perform said responsive function upon said input when said sensor detects said input.
The responsive system is preferably operatively connected to the article or can constitute the entire article. Preferably the article further comprises a disposable substrate, preferably a planar substrate, and optionally comprises further structural elements which may be disposable or non-disposable. The responsive system may be attached to, or disposed on or in the substrate or further structural elements. Preferably the responsive system is disposable and if all or part is connected to a non-disposable element, it is releasably connected so that it can be removed and replaced.
While the specification concludes with claims that particularly point out and distinctly claim the present invention, the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings describe the invention and preferred embodiments thereof.